Paris in the Pantry

German Pancakes

German pancakes are something like a mix between a beignet and flan. It is delicious. This is a great one pan meal. All you have to do is mix all the ingredients in a bowl, pour the ingredients into a really hot buttery pan and stick it in the oven, (so easy). 

This recipe seemed like it was a little too eggy for me so I might try a recipe with less egg, but it was still delicious

*the pancake tastes great with banana and blueberry maple syrup on top.

Meyer Lemon Tart

Meyer lemons are a type of lemon that are only in season for a few months in winter. They are a sweeter version of a lemon thought to be a hybrid between a regular lemon and a mandarin orange. When I saw them in stock at my local supermarket I bought one and made a meyer lemon tart with it.

This is probably the easiest tart I have ever made. To make the filling you just plop all the ingredients in the food processor (including a whole lemon) and pulse it until its thoroughly combined. The tart also is very good; I wish it had a tarter flavor so using a tart lemon in this recipe would be good too.

recipe: http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/02/whole-lemon-tart/

Blueberry Cornmeal Pancakes with Blueberry Maple Syrup

My Friend Briar got me the Food Porn Daily Cookbook for my birthday this year. When skimming through the book I found this recipe. I love cornmeal pancakes but had never thought of adding blueberries to them. It turned out amazingly. My boyfriend and I ate a serving for four between the two of us.  

This recipe does not only taste great but it is easy to make. I urge everyone to get this cook book, it has a lot of great recipes in it. 

Madeleines

Madeleines are the true test to tell how good a baker is. Surprisingly they are extremely difficult to make; they need a few necessary components: airiness on the inside, moisture, not burning them, and the hump. This recipe seemed like it would promise all these things, and I’m sure it would have if I had beaten the eggs for longer.

I was able to mastered the hump, the not burning, and the moisture; the hump being the most difficult. I think when making the madeleines I didn’t whip the eggs for long enough, leaving it to not be as airy as it should have. I put half the madelines in the lemon glaze and dusted the other half in powdered sugar. Both tasted very good.

Recipe: http://www.lottieanddoof.com/2009/04/chocolate-caramel-tart/

Chocolate Caramel Tart

I love the combination of caramel and chocolate, it is one of my favorites, so a little while ago when I saw a caramel and chocolate tart on the cover of Saveur magazine I knew it was something I had to make.

The tart itself is not hard to make at all. It’s just whipping up some caramel, chocolate ganache, and a tart shell; all easy steps. The final product tasted a bit like a candy bar with all the caramel the crunch bottom and the chocolate on the outside. Unfortunately the tart isn’t as good as I thought it was going to be. It needed something else, maybe some bananas at the bottom. But if you do decide to make this tart the fleur de sel (or some other form of sea salt) is necessary.

Recipe: http://www.lottieanddoof.com/2009/04/chocolate-caramel-tart/

Christmas Cookies

When decorating the tree every year I make Christmas cookies. Usually I forfeit the normal shape of a snowflake for a round blob to get the great for a chewy taste of the sugar cookie. But this year, instead, I decided to make pretty looking snowflake cookies. The recipe for the cookies and icing were both very easy, almost all the cookies came out perfectly (the smaller the cookie cutter the better they will come out).

Cookie recipe: http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/the-best-rolled-sugar-cookies/Detail.aspx

Icing recipe: http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/sugar-cookie-icing/Detail.aspx

Caramel and Sautéed Apple Tart

This is one of the more difficult desserts I have made. Not skill wise but all the different layers. First there’s a tart shell, then a caramel layer, then a sautéed apple layer and then a crumb topping. It is a lot to make but it is so worth it.

This is one of the best fall deserts I have ever had and it is perfect with a cinnamon of vanilla bean ice cream

S’mores Cake

Earlier this summer I had made s’mores cupcakes for everyone at work so I decided I should try making it into a cake, so last week I made a s’mores cake! I did everything exactly the same and it worked out perfectly.

This cake is difficult to make though it takes a lot of time and you need a blowtorch for the icing. The cake is really worth the time and effort though…

Recipe:

http://www.openingceremony.us/entry.asp?pid=1275

How to Make Brownies From a Mix Better

Brownies from scratch are much better than from a mix but I often get lazy and just use the mix instead. Over the past couple of months I’ve been experimenting on how to make them taste a little better and this is what I’ve come up with. Add a teaspoon and a half of instant coffee to the water to bring out the chocolate flavor add a ¼ cup of caramel sauce to the mix as well as some hot fudge. These couple of things will make the brownies richer and taste really chocolaty.

They also taste amazing when you add nutella on top!

Shallot and Mushroom Quiche

I love a good quiche, but it’s hard to make a good one because they’re always so many parts to it — making the crust, sautéing the vegetables, and making the perfect egg mixture. All together it takes well over an hour to prepare, but when there’s a good recipe, its well worth the effort.

This quiche took extra long to make because after making the dough, you have to refrigerate it and then bake it before adding the vegetables and egg mixture.  But the crust was good and well worth the wait. The mushrooms and shallots were perfectly cooked, and the recipe calls for just the right amount of them, too.  I just added a few drops of truffle oil to the egg mixture to make the quiche richer. It turned out great! I would have to say it is the best mushroom quiche I’ve ever made.

Recipe: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Mushroom-Shallot-Quiche-236171 *

* I used a mixed variety of three mushrooms to make the flavors in the quiche more exciting